| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) 11:33 - Oct 6 with 861 views | Chris_ITFC |
I didn’t plan to make this a regular thing, it was just a response to the OTT negativity of the responses to the Bristol City game. People seemed to like the balanced view. This time may be tricky… 
5 X POSITIVES
• That will be worth a lot more than 3 points to us. The buzz, confidence, momentum - we’ll be far better for it, and will pick up more points in the upcoming games because of that. It also gives Kieran and the boys a little space to breath, as the club and fans feel more together than we have for several months.
• Kipre was superb, a beast with a beautiful touch. But this positive is more about what it says about us - our squad is UNREAL, when we can rotate out a Team of the Season CB and bring in someone of that quality. That is such an advantage.
• In a similar way, but different - Clarke and Philogene. If you look up “competition for places”, you’ll see a picture of them. They are pushing each other to higher and higher levels, both are contributing, and absolute credit to them. And what a tease from Kieran to get them both on the pitch at the same time - if he can figure out how to do that regularly, we’ll walk this league.
• Such has been the contribution of those two, it probably goes under the radar that Szmodics, Akpom and Hirst haven’t started firing yet. They (and we) have got away with that so far, but the goals waiting to burst out of those 3 fill me with anticipation. Szmodics and Akpom in particular are proven at this level, and the dam will burst some day soon.
• When the away game rolls around, Kieran won’t have to waste his time answering a million questions about a completely irrelevant derby record. Yay.
5 X NEGATIVES
• I’ll be singing a little less desperately from here on in. Each to their own, but genuinely, I couldn’t care less if we finish 7th now. I must’ve been to 100s of football matches, and very few come anywhere close to how yesterday felt for me. I love the boys for that, and I love this season for that, no matter what…… Okay, I fudged this into the negatives somewhat.
• Onto a couple of genuine concerns. I don’t mind Hirst missing chances, but it does worry me when a guy after the golden boot squares a pass to nobody, when he has the chance to score from 6 yards out. The position he picked the ball up in was very similar to Delap v Villa (H), and the contrast in outcome is all about confidence. Hopefully he’ll get it back, but he won’t get forever to do that, with Azon and Akpom as alternatives. I hated the moans and groans Hirst got too.
• A couple of tactical ones - I actually thought Norwich got it tactically spot on for much of the first 60 minutes. They found a way of funnelling us from Kipre to O’Shea to Furlong… to a dead end. It was noticeable in the first half how little of the ball our left side had - our 3 best players: Davis, Cajuste, Philogene. When they got it, they were superb - but Norwich showed a blueprint for how to nullify us.
• Very much linked to that, it’s a worry how often we gave the ball away or got caught on it in our own half. Better teams will punish that, as we saw last season. I fully back the tactical approach, as we need to draw teams out to give space to Philogene et al - it’s just we maybe lacked a secondary option or that bit of pragmatic decision-making at times.
• I’m running out, so - Norwich aren’t anywhere near as miserable as I’d hope. We beat them, comfortably, and they’ve just accepted they’re sh*te and we’re the Pride of Anglia. That’s just no fun.  |  |
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| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 11:48 - Oct 6 with 742 views | J2BLUE |
Hirst didn't look up and just expected a team mate to be there. Not sure that was some big sign he's completely lost confidence. That was a player putting the team and the victory above his own desire to score. |  |
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| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:04 - Oct 6 with 600 views | DarkBrandon |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 11:48 - Oct 6 by J2BLUE |
Hirst didn't look up and just expected a team mate to be there. Not sure that was some big sign he's completely lost confidence. That was a player putting the team and the victory above his own desire to score. |
I mentioned elsewhere, I was rather disappointed in Philogene not busting a gut to be in the box there. |  | | |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:05 - Oct 6 with 592 views | LeoMuff |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 11:48 - Oct 6 by J2BLUE |
Hirst didn't look up and just expected a team mate to be there. Not sure that was some big sign he's completely lost confidence. That was a player putting the team and the victory above his own desire to score. |
I don’t think there are many professional footballers passing without looking, certainly very odd for a striker in that position not to try and score. |  |
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| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:06 - Oct 6 with 585 views | Chris_ITFC |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 11:48 - Oct 6 by J2BLUE |
Hirst didn't look up and just expected a team mate to be there. Not sure that was some big sign he's completely lost confidence. That was a player putting the team and the victory above his own desire to score. |
He’s unselfish and I love him for it, but a Hirst full of confidence shoots from here:
Just look where he shot from vs the Blades!
He came out after Pompey and said he hadn’t played well, then missed a few chances yesterday before that and got 1 or 2 big moans.
Cut me a little slack - 5 negatives weren’t easy to find! | |
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| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:08 - Oct 6 with 563 views | reusersfreekicks |
Good feature - like it
But finishing 7th - no no no |  | | |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:30 - Oct 6 with 454 views | Chris_ITFC |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:08 - Oct 6 by reusersfreekicks |
Good feature - like it
But finishing 7th - no no no |
I knew that would be marmite - because I was the same last week! All about the league!
… But I wouldn’t swap anything for yesterday! | |
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| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 14:36 - Oct 6 with 258 views | billlm |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 12:04 - Oct 6 by DarkBrandon |
I mentioned elsewhere, I was rather disappointed in Philogene not busting a gut to be in the box there. |
Philogene would expect his striker to try and score so would never expect a square ball I wouldn't have done,
A bizarre passage of play but didn't do any damage,
Onward and upwards, |  | | |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 15:20 - Oct 6 with 147 views | Chris_ITFC |
| 5x5 - Norwich City (H) on 14:36 - Oct 6 by billlm |
Philogene would expect his striker to try and score so would never expect a square ball I wouldn't have done,
A bizarre passage of play but didn't do any damage,
Onward and upwards, |
Yeah, he was almost out of the frame - see above! | |
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